UPDATE 1-New group of Muammar Gaddafi officials arrive in Niger

AGADEZ, Niger, Sept 9 (Reuters) - A new group of 14 Muammar
Gaddafi officials including General Ali Kana, a Tuareg who was
in charge of Gaddafi's southern troops, are in Niger's northern
city of Agadez, Niger security sources told Reuters on Friday.

Two sources said the group included four top officials,
amongst them two generals. A local administrator said the other
general was Ali Sharif al-Rifi, Gaddafi's commanding officer of
the Libyan air force.

A Reuters reporter in Agadez said the four top officials
were staying at the Etoile du Tenere hotel, a luxurious hotel in
the outskirt of the town, said to be owned by Gaddafi, where the
Libyan leader stayed during a Muslim holiday in 2007.

"The group arrived in four four-wheel-drive vehicles on
Thursday afternoon," one of the sources said, adding that they
had been accompanied by Nigerien security forces.

A Reuters cameraman said local officials of the Agadez
region including the chief of police, the chief of the gendarme
and the head of intelligence were seen entering the hotel to
meet the four senior officials from Libya.

Five plain clothes police officers and three uniformed
gendarmes are stationed inside the walls of the hotel while two
armed gendarmes are stationed at the gate, the cameraman said.

No official Nigerien comment was immediately available.

The arrival of the group follows that of the head of
Gaddafi's security brigades, Mansour Dhao, who crossed into
Niger in a convoy on or around Sept. 4.

Niger has said it had allowed the Libyans into its territory
on humanitarian grounds. It has come under international
pressure to hand over former Gaddafi officials suspected of
human rights abuses.
(Reporting by Abdoulaye Massalatchi in Agadez and Nathalie
Prevost in Niamey; writing by Bate Felix; editing by Philippa
Fletcher)